There has been a demonstrable increase in recent years in the number and types of devices that are adapted with wireless communication capabilities. For example, sensor devices, mechanical equipment, and stand-alone appliances are just some of the devices that traditionally have not had communication capabilities but which are now being adapted to perform wireless communications. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term that has been used to refer to a network formed from the numerous devices and objects, i.e., things, that now have the capability to exchange data. Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of almost 50 billion objects by 2020.
Battery life is an ever-present problem for many of the devices that are now being adapted with wireless communication capabilities. Constraints on the size and weight of many of these devices restrict the size of the batteries, which, in turn, limits the battery's capacity.